It was Andy Robertson who noticed him first.
As the rest of Scotland’s players padded nervously around the centre circle at Wembley a couple of hours before kick-off on Friday night, the captain spotted one man who really ought to have been out there with them, dressed up in the standard issue dark blue romper suit and white t-shirt.
Instead, the desperately unfortunate Kenny McLean was standing there in his civvies, looking on from the other side of the advertising hoardings, having been reduced to the role of a pitch side TV pundit.
Robertson bee lined across to offer up a consolatory cuddle to the man who played such a huge part in turning this entire Euro 2020 dream sequence into a reality.
All at once and to a man, 22 others followed him over to the sidelines until McLean was being swamped under a flurry of fist pumps and well wishes.
It was an off the cuff reunion but it painted a poignant image of togetherness which will live long in the memory long after this tournament is over and UEFA’s caravan has rolled off into the distance.
Because this is a Scotland side which is being built to last, with its very best days still to come.
It’s not always been this way. In more than 30 years spent on the road with the national team it’s hard to recall a squad which has felt so tightly bound together, or as talented as the one which Steve Clarke has assembled around him this summer.
Even in the good old days, back when qualifying for major events was almost routinely taken for granted, it always felt as if Andy Roxburgh and Craig Brown were in danger of tripping up over one or two of the over inflated egos inside their own camp.
And, at the height of the wilderness years, when things were going seriously south under the likes of George Burley and Berti Vogts, the atmosphere around the group would teeter somewhere between tense and toxic.
It wasn’t that these players did not share the same sense of deep pride in wearing a dark blue shirt. On the contrary, of the hundreds of caps which have been handed out over the years, it’s difficult to remember one that was not cherished by its recipient.
But all too often, cliques and factions have made Scotland’s camp an unhappy place to be around and especially when the man in charge has lost the faith or respect of his own players.
Which is why it does feel as if Clarke has got something special going on with this current squad and why the nation should stand behind them no matter what fate may have in store for Scotland at Hampden tomorrow night when the final standings of Group D will be determined. One way or the other.
The standard of the performance these players produced on Friday night is all the evidence required that the manager has his team moving in the right direction. And it’s why fresh hope and expectation now abounds ahead of a meeting with a Croatian side which was competing in a World Cup final just three years ago.
Logic dictates that our youngsters shouldn’t stand a chance in such esteemed and experienced company. And yet, almost remarkably, they do.
If it should all go badly, Scotland will be eliminated from the competition, kicked out of their own backyard by the Croats without winning a group game and perhaps even without scoring a single goal.
Such a disappointing conclusion will lead, inevitably, to calls for Clarke’s head to be served up on a silver platter. And, if that’s the case, they should be largely ignored.
Because it’s the silver lining on which Scotland must focus even if this summer’s tournament may have managed to come too soon, despite 23 years of hanging around waiting for it to come.
Win, lose or draw tomorrow the truth of the matter is that Clarke is the right man in the right place and at just the right time. Yes, he is fortunate to be in charge just when Scottish football has produced a clutch of players who are as close to a collective ‘golden generation’ as we have had for three decades.
But Clarke’s job is to come up with the strategy to get the best out of them on the pitch while also creating precisely the kind of chemistry behind the scenes which was so evident when Robertson led his team mates across the Wembley pitch to embrace a much missed brother.
And it’s this sense of unity and cohesion which will give Scotland a fighting chance tomorrow night even though Clarke and his players are wet behind the ears at this level in comparison to the wily old stagers in table cloths, waiting for them on the other side of the Hampden halfway line.
Yes, there will be an almighty onus on Clarke to get his tactics and team selection spot on and true, he’s already blotted his own copy book by getting it wrong in the opening game against the Czechs.
That he’s still bristling at some of the criticism which came his way after that 2-0 defeat suggests that it touched a nerve.
That he made a raft of changes in both positions and personnel for Wembley suggests that it wasn’t as wide of the mark as the manager has made out.
Clarke also made a minor misstep before the tournament began when he needlessly promised that Scott McTominay would be reinstated to Scotland’s midfield rather than deployed on the right hand side of a bespoke, ball playing back three.
Having created this position for the Manchester United man in the first place, the manager was right to go back on his word at Wembley by returning McTominay to defensive duties and creating space in midfield for both Billy Gilmour and Callum McGregor - who added the composure and control which was so glaringly missing against the Czechs.
That we may have 15 years of watching Gilmour in a Scotland shirt is another sign of where this team is heading.
But, in the here and now of Euro 2020, Clarke has a chance to make a huge stride tomorrow.
With Kieran Tierney also back in action against England, the manager was able to correct the mistakes made in the opening match which, despite his prickliness, proves that he too is capable of adapting and learning on the job.
If he gets the big calls right again tomorrow - and if a little bit of good luck is also on board - then this Scotland team might prove to be ready before its time.
But, either way, the best will be yet to come.
